


something enters this universe through it, through you

by murdershewrote



Series: mother mary [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Motherhood, Postpartum Depression, Roman Catholicism, Stand Alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 21:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murdershewrote/pseuds/murdershewrote
Summary: Maria used to think she would be remembered as Anthony Stark’s mother. Now she knows better. Monsters don’t have mothers.





	something enters this universe through it, through you

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the poem ['Wormhole is just another word'](https://theoffingmag.com/micro/wormhole-just-another-word/) by Melissa Moorer. Full text transcribed at beginning of story.

> _Wormhole is just another word for woman or girl. It isn’t even a real thing or place, but a hole you climb through to get to somewhere else. See, all the textbooks lie. Nothing grows inside you when you’re pregnant. A portal opens to another universe and slowly, one cell at a time, something enters this universe through it, through you._

The pregnancy is awful and by the time she finally gives birth Maria can’t even summon the strength to hold her son. Howard names the child while Maria sleeps, Anthony Edward, even though Maria had begged for Antonio if the baby was a boy. She wanted a girl so very badly, the thought of raising a beautiful daughter the only thing keeping her going through the vomiting and the exhaustion, but God doesn’t even give her that. 

Maria goes home but doesn’t leave the bed. A wet nurse watches her son while just outside Maria’s room the doctor diagnoses ‘baby blues’, informing Howard and not her. The only treatment is time, of which she has plenty. 

The baby is crawling by the time Maria emerges from her room. He is still so very small and for a moment Maria feels a rush of maternal love. Maria calls him Tonio and speaks to him in Italian, telling him all about the great cities of Rome and Florence, the Italian inventors, the art, the beauty, and for a while she is transported to the idyllic countryside of her childhood. 

One day Tonio turns to her and asks, in perfect Italian, when they are going to Italy. When Maria doesn’t answer, stunned, he repeats the question in English. There is nothing childlike in his voice, except for its high tones. It doesn’t happen just then, but slowly, as Tonio walks and talks and reads and builds, so much sooner and better than he should have, Maria finds her love replaced by fear. 

She understands now, the stories of the fae changeling children, because surely this is not her child? Surely, she did not birth this boy, smarter than most adults before he’s five? She wonders if perhaps he is the reincarnation of Athena, born out of his father’s thoughts. He is alien to her and once again Maria retreats to her room. 

When the son surpasses the father in firepower, building a rocket that goes farther and destroys more, Maria goes to church and begs God for forgiveness. A demon was born of her belly and she let it loose on the world instead of smothering it in the cradle like she should have. 

Maria used to think she would be remembered as Anthony Stark’s mother. Now she wonders if she will be remembered at all, if she won’t just be erased from history when the being that came from her belly takes over the world and names himself conqueror. Monsters don’t have mothers.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe Tony really is an eldritch abomination. Maybe Maria is just in over her head.
> 
> I'm on [tumblr.](http://murdersshewrote.tumblr.com)


End file.
